A RTA bus rolls eastbound on Fir Avenue in Moreno Valley in 2009. Moreno Valley College students will no longer be able to ride RTA buses just by showing their student identifcation cards. The college will be dropped from Riverside Community College District’s Go-Pass contract with the Riverside Transit Agency.

Moreno Valley College students won’t be able to ride RTA buses starting this summer by showing their student ID cards.

The Riverside Community College District board voted 3-2 Tuesday night, Jan. 22, to remove Moreno Valley College from its contract with Riverside Transit Agency that charged all students $5.50 a semester for unlimited rides on RTA buses. Students already had voted to ask the board to discontinue the program.

Students at the Ben Clark Training Center, which is part of Moreno Valley College, and students who didn’t ride buses but paid $50 a semester for a parking permit had objected to the mandatory fee.

Associated Students Moreno Valley College had suggested two options to continue the pass for students who rely on buses. Neither was acceptable to RTA, said Greg Sandoval, vice president of student services.

He said the board’s vote to remove the college from the contract will give the student government more leverage to negotiate a way to serve students who lack transportation.

Riverside City College will continue its Go-Pass program. Norco College, also part of the district, has never had the program, but has a fund to assist students who need transportation.

Trustee Sam Davis said it was premature to change the contract until the student government has a plan to serve students without transportation. Trustee Mary Figueroa said she was conflicted and cast the other no vote.

“My concern ends up for the students who don’t come in to these board meetings and who may not have the confidence to show up” as alumni Jorge Flores did, Figueroa said. She said she was concerned about students who will be left standing at the curb.

Flores said when he was a UC Riverside student, he drove his car to campus 80 percent of the time and rode RTA buses about 20 percent of the time. His car broke down on the way to a final exam but he caught an RTA bus by showing his ID even though he didn’t have any cash with him, Flores said.

Figueroa and the three trustees who voted to change the contract all said they need to respect the students’ vote.

Follow Dayna Straehley on Twitter: @dstraehley_PE and watch for her posts on the Inland Schools blog: http://blog.pe.com/schools/